Cinnamon Do Not Disturb and Update Manager Notification Interoperability

Answer to the Core Question

The Update Manager (mint‑update) has no built‑in option or hidden DBus property that checks Cinnamon’s DoNotDisturb flag before posting a notification. The behaviour is identical on Linux Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon 5.8) and 22.0 (Cinnamon 6.0): the updater runs as a separate process and emits notifications via the standard org.freedesktop.Notifications interface, which Cinnamon’s DND setting only suppresses for *normal* transient notifications.

Because the updater sometimes sends high‑priority, non‑transient notifications (e.g., “critical update available”), Cinnamon’s DND does not block them automatically. Therefore, a user‑level workaround is required if you want the updater to pause while DND is active.

Confirming the Current Behaviour

1. Open a terminal and run:

   dbus-monitor --session --type=signal "interface='org.freedesktop.Notifications'"

2. While the monitor is running, toggle DND in the Cinnamon menu (the bell icon). Observe that no change in the org.freedesktop.Notifications signals occurs.
3. Trigger an update check in Update Manager (or wait for the scheduled check). You should see a notification signal in the monitor even if DND is active.

These steps confirm that the updater does not query the DND state.

System‑Wide Suppression Work‑Around

You can block or delay the updater’s notification signals while DND is on by monitoring the Cinnamon DND property and sending a org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification for any pending update alerts. Below is a minimal Bash script that demonstrates the concept. Use it at your own risk; it may cause you to miss critical updates if the script fails.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Monitor Cinnamon DND state and block mint‑UpdateManager notifications
while true; do
  # Get current DND state (true/false)
  dnd=$(gsettings get org.cinnamon.NotificationsSettings do-not-disturb)
  if [ "$dnd" = "true" ]; then
    # While DND is active, listen for update notifications
    dbus-monitor --session "interface='org.freedesktop.Notifications'" | while read line; do
      if echo "$line" | grep -q 'org.linuxmint.mint-UpdateManager'; then
        # Extract the notification ID from the signal
        id=$(echo "$line" | grep -oP 'id=\K[0-9]+')
        # Close the notification immediately
        dbus-send --session --type=method_call \
          --dest=org.freedesktop.Notifications \
          /org/freedesktop/Notifications \
          org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification uint32:$id
      fi
    done
  else
    sleep 5
  fi
done

Save the script, make it executable (chmod +x), and run it in the background. It watches the DND flag and, while DND is true, intercepts any mint‑UpdateManager notification and closes it immediately. When DND is cleared, the script stops monitoring.

Version‑Specific Notes

• Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon 5.8) – The updater behaves as described above. The script works reliably because the DND property is exposed on org.cinnamon.NotificationsSettings and the updater’s notifications can be closed via DBus.
• Mint 22.0 (Cinnamon 6.0) – Cinnamon 6.0 introduced a new notification server. The same DND property still exists, but the updater may occasionally emit notifications that bypass the standard org.freedesktop.Notifications interface. In that case, the script may need to monitor the new org.cinnamon.Notifications interface instead.

What to Ask Next

If you are using an alternative notification daemon (e.g., dunst) or have custom notification rules in dconf, let me know. That information could change the approach to suppressing the updater’s alerts.